Paul Anderson has bounced back from tough times to ... - NHRA.com

y Brad Littlefield
he desire of third-year Top
TAlcohol Funny Car pilot Paul
Anderson was put to the test three
competitive runs into his alcohol
racing career. The 23-year-old
from Erie, Colo., went off the end
of the track at Bandimere
Speedway, his home track, during
a Division 5 NHRA Lucas Oil
Drag Racing Series event and did
major damage to the chassis and
body in the sand trap. The rebuilt
race car was at a racetrack two
months later and in a winner’s
circle two weeks after that.
Fourteen months after the
accident in Denver, Anderson
grabbed an early lead during the
final round of a Division 5 event
in Brainerd before the rods in his
engine let go and started a fire.
The body was all but destroyed,
but taking time off to regroup
wasn’t an option that came to
Anderson’s mind — he was racing in
Denver three weeks later.
The peaks of attaining major
accomplishments, such as winning
the Division 5 championship in
2007, mean a great deal to
Anderson, though his tenacity is
better measured by his ability to
bounce back from the valleys of ontrack
catastrophe so fluidly.
Anderson has drag racing
embedded so deeply into his fabric
that he can’t imagine a life away
from the racetrack.
ennis and Phemia Anderson
Dinstilled in their son the value
of hard work through their family
business, Anderson Family Steaks,
which Dennis and brothers Paul Jr.
and Clifford took over after their
late father, Paul Sr. The meat
industry is demanding of its
managers, as Paul grew to find out.
Twelve-hour workdays are initiated
by the sound of an alarm clock that
rings at 2:30 a.m.
Anderson has done his part to
grow the business by spearheading
and managing DenverSteaks.com,
which distributes its products to a
national market online. Anderson is
also a certified personal trainer,
though the demands of alcohol
racing absorb the night and weekend
hours available to train clients.
Anderson chuckles when he
talks about spending all day at
work and the rest of the night
working on race cars. “That’s all
we know,” he said.
Anderson’s drag racing roots
were planted two generations
36 ✦ National DRAGSTER
Paul Anderson has bounced back from tough times to find
success in Top Alcohol Funny Car
Paul Anderson, 23, hopes to make a
career out of drag racing. The former Jr.
Dragster standout has already captured
the Division 5 championship in Top
Alcohol Funny Car.
earlier on his mother’s side of the
family. Her late father, Paul
Snyder, was a drag racer in the
1960s and 1970s, and her
brothers, Tom and Paul (who
goes by “Lucky”), carried on
after him with altereds in Comp
that were dubbed Pappy’s Pride.
“I was hooked when I was a
little kid,” said Anderson. “We have
pictures of me at 3 years old in an
NHRA outfit. I remember my
grandma taking me around to get
autographs at the Mile-High
Nationals when I was little. Vern
Moats signed his event champion
hat and put it on my head. I’ve
been good friends with him ever
since, and I’d help polish the wheels
on his car or drain the puke tank at
every race we went to after that.”
With his interest in drag racing
kindled, Anderson got started in
the NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League
in 1995, and he achieved great
success, which boosted his
confidence and drew great family
support. Anderson won four track
championships in a row (three at
Bandimere and one at Julesburg
Raceway) in his first three seasons
and won five total track
championships through 1999. He
stepped up to the big cars at age 16
with his uncles’ Comp altered.
“I think I went 100 mph on the
first run in the Comp car, and I
couldn’t get the chutes out fast
enough,” said Anderson, who raced
in Comp for five years. “It took my
brain a while to slow the runs down
and get a grip on it, but I really
think I took the right stepping
stones. We didn’t really stand out in
Comp other than winning Best
Appearing and Best Engineered Car
in Las Vegas [in 2005].
“Vern Moats played a big part in
helping us move up to the alcohol
ranks. I think he talked my parents
into it more than I did. He has the
baseline for a Top Alcohol Funny
Car, and he knows how to get a car
down the track safely. He gave me
a lot of great driving advice, and he
gave us a ton of great tuning
advice. A lot of guys run with Vern,
then try to spread their wings and
fly; some do and some fall. We’re
both doing our own deals now, but
we have a very close relationship
and are right there for each other.”
aking the move to the alcohol
Mranks in 2006 was a major
investment in more aspects than
just financial. It was an investment
in time, sweat, and emotion going
towards Anderson’s dream to mold
a career in drag racing. When a
chute failure led to an incident
during Anderson’s second outing, it
gave him an empty feeling that put
his firm resolve to the test.
“When I crashed the first time in
Bandimere, I was emotional and
so was everybody else,” Anderson
recalled. “There were a lot of
tears. I thought, ‘I think I just
gave up my whole life’s earnings.’
I went to the hospital, and my dad
came and asked, ‘Are you done?’ I
looked at him and said, ‘No, this
is just the beginning.’ He said,
‘Alright, that means we go for it.’
“That was the moment that they
knew I was in it to win it. If you
look at the Pro drivers, it doesn’t
faze them. If that’s what you want
to be, it can’t faze you. It’s the
ugly side of the sport. You hope
for more
bright days
than dark
days, but you
have to take
them both
with a grain
of salt.”
In contrast
to the incident
in Denver,
there was no
need to
question
Anderson’s
intent moving
forward after
the fire in
Brainerd in 2007.
“After Brainerd, I went over
and sat on the wall, looking at the
car as the fire was still being put
out,” said Anderson. “Dad came
over and asked, ‘What do you
think? Is it just the body or the
whole car?’ I said, ‘I think it’s the
whole car.’ On the way home, we
dropped it of to get a new body
mounted on it. Within 12 hours, it
was being worked on. From the
first one to the last one, we’re not
as emotional when it happens, and
we have a good idea how to get it
back on the track in a hurry.”
Rising from the depths of
disaster has made Anderson’s
success all the sweeter. Anderson
won in his second race back from
the top-end incident at the
Division 5 event in Earlville, Iowa,
and he won the Division 5 Rookie
of the Year award. The following
season, he won the Driver of the
Year award, the Division 5
championship, and the Division 6
race in Acton, Mont., in his first
event as a tuner.
“We told Vern we were going up
to page 39

● Anderson
from page 36
to Acton where he wasn’t going to
attend,” said Anderson. “There was no
cell phone service while we were up
there, so it was completely up to us. We
went through the book and did
everything we knew how to do, and we
ended up winning the event. That gave
us the confidence to continue with our
own ideas and expand from there.”
This year, Anderson got to the final
round at the Division 5 event in
Brainerd again and achieved a more
desirable result. Rather than looking at
a scorched race car at the end of the
day, he and his team were taking
pictures in the winner’s circle.
nderson makes no bones about
Athe fact that his long-term goal is
to drive in the fuel ranks. For now, he
is doing everything he can at and
away from the track to win in Top
Alcohol Funny Car, including trying
to secure funding.
“[Hunting for sponsors] is
something I’ve never been good at,”
said Anderson. “It’s awkward, it’s
difficult, and you have to love rejection.
I’m constantly talking to people and
staying in the mix because I know that
I have to make this a business if I want
this to be my career. I try to do my
best in the car when we’re racing and
promoting it when we’re not.”
Anderson has received sponsorship
support from Perfection Auto Body in
Longmont, Colo., and X-Treme Graphics,
which does all of the vinyl work on his
race car. He has put effort into running
a clean, professional operation to appeal
to Corporate America, doing things
ranging from airbrush-designed valve
covers to a complete vinyl wrap on his
trailer done by FineLine Graphics.
Anderson has learned the driving and
tuning ropes under the tutelage of 15-
time Division 5 champion Vern Moats, and
he has continued to progress since
making the tuning calls on his own.
Despite the efforts made to gain
corporate appeal, Anderson is also
happy that his team has very much
stayed a family operation. Anderson’s
parents are very involved on the crew;
his clutch guy, Stewart Jordison, is like
family; and his fiancée, Fawn
Pemberton, calls the main jet in the
staging lanes.
“I’m really glad to be a part of a
family that wants to be in drag racing,”
said Anderson. “Sometimes you can
argue over everything but the racetrack,
but I think it adds to the whole
experience to be working with the
people you’re close to. My uncle, Tom
Snyder, puts our motors together, so
I’m at his shop daily and talk about
new things to try.
“I enjoy tuning and working on the
car. I think the racing gods appreciate
the time you put in at the shop, and I
believe the lucky guy on the team who
gets to drive it should have to work on
it.” ND
(Left) Anderson has driven his
DenverSteaks.com/Perfection Auto Body
Dodge Charger to at least one Lucas Oil
Drag Racing Series event win in each of
his three seasons. (Below) Anderson’s
body was destroyed during the final
round at the Division 5 event in
Brainerd in 2007. He won that race
this season, and he hopes to do the
same at the national event.
August 8, 2008 ✦ 39